It’s hard to imagine hearing your child is critically ill. It’s hard to wrap your head around it and even to know where to begin with news of a life-threatening diagnosis. Parents and their families begin the seemingly never-ending spiral of hospitalizations and treatments. Diagnosis becomes overwhelming emotionally and financially.

Critically ill children and their families need a little extra joy and hope. That’s where Variety – the Children’s Charity steps in to provide comfort, care and help to fulfill immediate needs. Variety’s Compassion Fund is designed to help alleviate the stress and financial burden a family faces while their child is hospitalized.

Variety’s Compassion Fund benefits critically ill children & their families to fulfill their immediate needs such as;

• A gas card for travel to appointments
• Meals for a parent who spends weeks at the hospital
• Payment of immediate bills such as phone, heat or electricity
• A birthday cake for a child who will spend their special day in a hospital bed
• Care for siblings when parents need to stay with their ill child

Families who have been supported by the Compassion Fund are forever grateful for your generous donations. Here's what some of them have to say: 

"Someone out there helped with a co-pay. They don't even know us. They don't know anything about us, but they helped. It's amazing."

"Living on one paycheck is hard. To some people it may just be a cell phone bill or just gas, but to us, it’s really helped us out."

"Getting hit with this, it rocked us really bad. I have four other children at home. We are thankful for the Variety Compassion Fund for relieving some stress."